Of all people, Jim McGreevey is acutely aware of the power of identity.

The former New Jersey governor, who resigned in 2004 with a speech in which he proclaimed himself to be “a gay American,” has certainly shifted his public persona a number of times over the years.

McGreevey is now chairman of the New Jersey Re-entry Corporation, a Jersey City-based agency that provides former jail and prison inmates with services including addiction treatment and job training.

McGreevey will bring his perspective on identity to the stage in Asbury Park. He is among the more than 20 speakers appearing Saturday, May 20 at the TEDxAsburyPark conference at the Paramount Theatre on the Asbury Park Boardwalk.

TedxAsburyPark’s all-day event will feature authors, educators, musicians and other thinkers each, in their own way, addressing the topic of identity. McGreevey said that the title of his talk with be “Cultural Identity, Chosen Identity.”

“As children, as young adults, we have a cultural identity, namely how we understand ourselves from our families and our community,” McGreevey said. “And then as adults at some point, we have a chosen identity; how we understand ourselves.

“And for the women with whom I work, they have frankly so many negative scripts in their head — ‘I will never be a good mother,’ ‘I will always be an addict,’ ‘I will never have a job’ — so much of how they understand themselves has been framed by their experiences growing up, whether it’s in public housing or in difficult circumstances.”

The subject of identity, and the understanding that someone can change how they view themselves – and present that self to the world – appears to resonate with McGreevey.

“In the second half of life, for me personally, it’s having a sense of self that is, frankly, more committed to service than to self,” McGreevey said, “and deliberately, purposely, trying, however imperfectly, to seek your better angels, to be of service and in so doing finding life to be more purposeful, more rewarding.”

Event founder Brian Smiga said McGreevey made an ideal fit for TedxAsburyPark because of the event’s central theme.

“Governor McGreevey has really been a phoenix, if you will, living the life he wanted to live instead of the public life that he was living,” said Smiga. “And, I think even that is very congruent with the spirit of Asbury Park: be authentic, be community driven, be relationship and experiential (minded) rather than materialistic.

“So McGreevey, his current story is a lightning rod for those ideas. So that’s what I really like about Jim McGreevey’s talk; but honestly, we have 26 more talks that I could say the same thing about; they’re so diverse.”

Since launching in 2013 as TEDxNavesink, the conference has been held at a number of Monmouth County locations, including the Brookdale Community College campus in the Lincroft section of Middletown, the Two River Theater in Red Bank and the Pollak Theatre at Monmouth University in West Long Branch.

This year’s roster of speakers also includes author and activist Jasmin Singer, an Edison native, who will share her own life-changing journey.

Singer, who now lives in California, chronicled her vegan lifestyle, history of activism and nearly 100-pound weight loss in the 2016 book “Always Too Much and Never Enough: A Memoir.”

Her TEDxAsburyPark talk will be titled “Compassion Unlocks Identity.”

“(The talk) is about how we can’t access our true identity unless we start with compassion, but we can’t access our compassion unless we start with compassion for ourselves,” said Singer.

“As I describe, that’s something I learned the hard way, which stems from losing nearly 100 pounds and finally being invited into the cool kids' club, only to discover that I had a lot of pessimism regarding the intention behind that invitation, and it changed my view of the world radically. So (being) able to access my own definition of beauty for myself — that was the first step to my really showing up for myself authentically.”

Saturday’s event represents both a homecoming for Singer and a chance to share the universality of her message regarding self-compassion.

“Anybody who is in a position of caring for others, whether they’re parents or teachers or folks in the medical industry, can certainly bring home that message that we can’t possibly take care of those around us unless we’re in tiptop shape ourselves,” she said. “And yet, our society dictates that that is not a priority. The fast-paced world of social media, for example, you don’t see the real story of what’s going on for people in their own dark corners.

“And for me at least, I see a huge difference in how I show up for others based on how I’m showing up for myself. So, when I find myself judging or spending a lot of energy focusing on others and their reality it is a cue for me that I am not adequately paying attention to what is my business, which is how I’m showing up for myself.”

TEDxAsburyPark runs 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 20 at the Paramount Theatre, 1300 Ocean Ave., Asbury Park on the Asbury Park Boardwalk. For tickets, a full schedule of speakers and more information, visit tedxasburypark.com.